Presentation of real-time locations of parts in a manufacturing or service facility

ABSTRACT

Parts in a manufacturing or service facility are electronically tracked using wireless beacons, strategically positioned receiver devices in the facility, and a monitoring server. The wireless beacons are individually coupled to the parts in the facility and equipped with sensors that wake the wireless beacons up to wirelessly transmit location signals when sensed data indicates the parts are moving to the receiver devices. The receiver devices, in turn, transmit the location signals across a network to the monitoring server, which uses the location signals and identifiers of the receiver devices to locate the work areas of the facility in which the wireless beacons—and thus coupled parts—are located. Interactive user interfaces illustrate the real-time locations of the parts being located in the various work areas of the facility.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser.No. 62/202,761 filed on Aug. 7, 2015 and entitled “MONITORING PARTS IN AFACILITY”; U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/202,762 filed onAug. 7, 2015 and entitled “TRACKING PARTS IN MANUFACTURING AND SERVICEFACILITIES”; and U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/202,764 filedon Aug. 7, 2015 and entitled “PRESENTATION OF REAL-TIME LOCATIONS OFPARTS IN A MANUFACTURING OR SERVICE FACILITY.” These three provisionalpatent applications are hereby incorporated by reference in theirentirety for all intents and purposes.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure generally relates to tracking parts in a manufacturingor service facility and, more specifically, to presenting the trackedparts in interactive user interfaces (UIs) and displaying the real-timelocations of the parts in work areas of the manufacturing or servicefacility.

BACKGROUND

To function efficiently, manufacturing and service facilities depend ongetting the right component part to the right worker at the right time.Modern facilities are typically divided into different work areas (e.g.,receiving, welding, assembly, shipping, etc.), and parts are brought tospecialized workers in those areas to perform a job function. Manyinefficiencies result from the logistics involved with moving partsaround a facility floor. If the correct part is not in the appropriatework area at the right time, a worker wastes time tracking the part downin the facility.

Many of today's manufacturing and service facilities use paperwork todetail job tasks needing to be performed to build or service aparticular part. Using paperwork to track part manufacturing and servicetasks is cumbersome, inaccurate, and often requires more time findingand keeping the paperwork up to date than manufacturing or servicing thepart. A worker typically has to locate the appropriate paperwork, updateit correctly when a specific job task is finished, and then ensure itstays with the part as the part travels to the next work area. Such aprocess is only as good as the workers who maintain the accuracy of thepaperwork, and even the best workers typically cannot ensure theappropriate paperwork always follows all parts in the facility.Countless man hours are wasted tracking such paperwork and keeping it upto date. And the typical reaction of management to improve theefficiency of the process is to add additional paperwork or performadditional administrative tasks, most of which further complicatethings.

The paperwork includes manufacturing drawings for the various stages ofproduction. The manufacturing drawings are printed in large format andinclude tolerances for the part. Oftentimes the manufacturing drawingsare updated by the engineering team while the part is currently out onthe shop floor. The updated manufacturing drawings then need to beplaced with the part on the shop floor so the part can be manufacturedaccording to the updated drawing parameters. If the part has alreadybeen machined beyond the updated tolerances, then the part may need tobe scrapped resulting in a complete loss of the part and machiningcosts. Moreover, if the updated drawings do not end up being placed withthe proper part, the part is not machined properly, which could resultin failure or even catastrophic failure during operation as many of theparts manufactured are in hazardous operational conditions (highpressure, flooding, nuclear environments).

Even worse, worker productivity is drastically reduced when workers mustsearch for parts that are not in the correct work areas or must huntdown corresponding paperwork detailing tasks that need to be completedon the part. Welders hunting for paperwork or parts in a shop ormanufacturing facility spend less time actually welding. The end goal ofany manufacturing or service facility is to maximize the amount of timespecialized workers spend performing their specialized job tasks. Miringworkers down with administrative paper tasks or part-hunting expeditionsreduces the time spent actually manufacturing or servicing parts.

SUMMARY

This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter. Nor is it intended tobe used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subjectmatter.

One embodiment includes an apparatus for presenting a user interfacethat illustrates real-time locations of parts in a facility. Theapparatus includes memory configured to store: (1) location signals ofwireless beacons coupled to parts in the facility, and (2) a virtualboard component. The apparatus also includes one or more processors thatare programmed to determine the real-time locations of the parts basedon the location signals of the wireless beacons and to execute thevirtual board component to generate a virtual board user interfacepresenting the locations of the real-time locations of the parts.

In one embodiment, the apparatus includes a receiver for receiving thelocation signals from one or more receiver devices over a public orprivate network.

In one embodiment, the apparatus includes a receiver for receiving thelocation signals from a monitoring server over a public or privatenetwork.

In one embodiment, the wireless beacons are configured to wirelesslytransmit the location signals to one or more receiver devices using aBluetooth low energy (LE) wireless connection. In one embodiment, thevirtual board user interface includes a virtual board user interfacearea displaying a plurality of work areas in the facility and showing atleast some of the parts as being located in the plurality of work areas.

In one embodiment, the work areas are displayed indicating at least onemember of a group including a welding work area, a machining work area,an assembly work area, a shipping work area, and a receiving work area.

In one embodiment, the virtual board user interface includes a virtualboard user interface area displaying a plurality of sub-work areas inthe facility and showing at least some of the parts being located in theplurality of sub-work areas. In one embodiment, the sub-work areas aredisplayed indicating at least one member of a group including a holdingsub-work area, an inspection sub-work area, and a completion sub-workarea.

In one embodiment, the apparatus includes a presentation deviceconfigured to display the virtual board user interface. In oneembodiment, the presentation device includes a projector. In oneembodiment, the presentation device includes a computer monitor. In oneembodiment, the presentation device includes a television. In oneembodiment, the presentation device includes a mobile tablet. In oneembodiment, the presentation device includes a smart phone.

In one embodiment, the memory is configured to store a spatial mapcomponent, and the one or more processors are programmed to execute thespatial map component to generate a two- or three-dimensional spatialuser interface indicative of the real-time locations of the parts basedon the location signals.

In one embodiment, the two- or three-dimensional spatial user interfacepresents part representations of the parts in one or more work areas ofthe facility. In one embodiment, the work areas include at least onemember of a group including a welding work area, a machining work area,an assembly work area, a shipping work area, and a receiving work area.

In one embodiment, the two- or three-dimensional spatial user interfacepresents part representations of the parts in one or more sub-work areasof the facility. In one embodiment, the sub-work areas are displayedindicating at least one member of a group including a holding sub-workarea, an inspection sub-work area, and a completion sub-work area.

In one embodiment, the one or more processors are programmed to updatethe real-time locations of the parts in the virtual board user interfacebased on the location signals.

In one embodiment, the parts include at least member of a groupincluding: a fluid end, a swivel, a joint, a valve, a hose, a conduit, amanifold trailer, safety iron, a safety hammer, a dart valve, a plugvalve, a clapper check valve, a pressure relief valve, an emergencyunloading valve, a gate valve, a subsea dosage valve, a hydraulic valve,a valve seat, a butterfly valve, a steadseal valve, a hyperseal valve, aPolytetrafluoroethylene-lined valve, a swingthrough valve, arubber-sealing valve, a rubber-line valve, a fire safe valve, a swingand lift check valve, a T-pattern globe valve, a Y-pattern globe valve,a three-way globe valve, a compressor check valve, a cold reheat checkvalve, a cold heat check valve, a testable check valve, a reversecurrent valve, a parallel slide valve, a gate valve, a safety valve, asafety relief valve, an isolation valve, a relief valve, a mounted-ballvalve, a ball valve, a diaphragm valve, a butterfly valve, a gate andglobe valve, a check valve, a lift check valve, a swing check valve, asteam isolation valve, a feedwater isolation valve, an integrated safetyvalve, a single-stage turbine, a multi-stage turbine, a hydraulicturbine, a pump turbine, a quad-runner turbine, a gear operator, apneumatic actuator, a pressure control panel, a lifting clamp, a flowline safety restraint, a choke, a drop ball injector, a pump, a blowoutpreventer, a gas separator, an overshot connector, a wellhead, a fracpump, a positive displacement pump, a hydrocyclone, a dewatering pump, avortex pump, a trailer, a manifold system, a fluid end system, a slurrypump, a water pump, a subsea pump, a premix tank, a frac tree, aswellable packer, a manifold skid, a tubing head, a wellhead, a rodrotator, a stuffing box, a casing head, a tubing head, a conveyor, ascreening machine, a material handling machine, a communition machine, afeeder, a crusher, a modular plant, a barge. and a control valve.

Another embodiment is directed toward one or more computer-storage mediawith stored computer-executable instructions configured to cause one orprocessors to display a user interface displaying real-time locations ofparts in a manufacturing facility. The user interface includes: a firstuser interface area displaying a first set of parts currently located ina first work area of the manufacturing facility, and a second userinterface area displaying a second set of parts currently located in asecond work area of the manufacturing facility.

In one embodiment, the first user interface area is configured to removedisplay of at least one part from the first user interface area anddisplay an indication of the at least one of part in the second userinterface area upon sensed movement of the at least one part in themanufacturing facility from the first work the second work area.

In one embodiment, the real-time locations of the parts are determinedby a monitoring server or a client computing device based on locationsignals of wireless beacons coupled to the parts.

In one embodiment, the user interface includes a third user interfacearea for receiving search query terms for identifying parts or workareas in the user interface. In one embodiment, the user interface isconfigured to highlight at least a portion of the first user interfacearea when search query terms received by the third user interface areaindicate that at least one part in the manufacturing facility is locatedin the first work area, and highlight at least a portion of the seconduser interface area when search query terms received by the third userinterface area indicate that at least one part in the manufacturingfacility is located in the second work area.

In one embodiment, the first user interface and the second userinterface are displayed in a three-dimensional view.

Another embodiment is directed to a method for presenting a userinterface indicating the real-time locations of parts in a manufacturingfacility; wherein, the parts are coupled to wireless beacons configuredto wirelessly transmit location signals. The method includes: receivingthe location signals; determining locations of the parts in themanufacturing facility based on the location signals; and presenting auser interface having a first user interface area showing a first set ofthe parts being located in a first work area, and a second userinterface area showing a second set of the parts being located in asecond work area.

In one embodiment, the user interface shows at least one part movingfrom the first work area to the second work area as the location signalsassociated with the at least one part indicate movement to the secondwork area.

In one embodiment, the user interface includes a virtual board userinterface showing the real-time locations of the parts in a plurality ofwork areas.

In one embodiment, the user interface includes a virtual board userinterface showing the real-time locations of the parts in a plurality ofsub-work areas.

In one embodiment, the user interface includes a spatial map userinterface showing the real-time locations of the parts in a plurality ofwork areas.

In one embodiment, the user interface includes a spatial map userinterface showing the real-time locations of the parts in a plurality ofsub-work areas.

In one embodiment, the method includes receiving a user selection of atleast one part, retrieving a manufacturing or service order associatedwith the at least one part, and presenting the manufacturing or serviceorder.

Another embodiment is directed to one or more computer storage mediaembodying computer-executable components for causing a computing deviceto present a user interface indicative of the real-time locations ofparts in a facility. The media includes: a communications interfacecomponent configured to receive location signals associated withwireless beacons coupled to the parts in the facility, a part locationcomponent configured to determine the real-time locations of the partsin the facility based on the location signals, and a virtual boardcomponent configured to present a virtual board user interface showingthe real-time locations of the parts in relation to one or more workareas of the facility.

Another embodiment is directed to one or more computer storage mediaembodying computer-executable components executable for causing acomputing device to present a user interface indicative of the real-timelocations of parts in a facility. The media includes: a communicationsinterface component configured to receive location signals associatedwith wireless beacons coupled to the part in the facility, a partlocation component configured to determine real-time locations of theparts in the facility based on the location signals, and a spatial mapcomponent configured to present a spatial user interface showing thereal-time locations of the parts in relation to one or more work areasof the facility.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings facilitate an understanding of the variousembodiments.

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a wireless beacon for implementingsome of the disclosed embodiments.

FIGS. 2A-2B are exploded-view diagrams of valves with wireless beaconsfor implementing some of the disclosed embodiments.

FIG. 3 is a client computing device configured to present interactiveUIs showing the locations of parts in a manufacturing facility inaccordance with some of the disclosed embodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram of a monitoring server configured totrack parts in a manufacturing facility and provide interactive UIs inaccordance with some of the disclosed embodiments.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a networking environment for implementingsome of the disclosed embodiments.

FIG. 6 is diagram of a manufacturing facility with strategicallypositioned receiver devices in accordance with some of the disclosedembodiments.

FIG. 7 is a UI diagram illustrating an example of a three-dimensionalspatial UI showing real-time locations of parts in a manufacturingfacility in accordance with some of the disclosed embodiments.

FIG. 8 is a UI diagram illustrating an example of a two-dimensionalspatial UI showing real-time locations of parts in a manufacturingfacility in accordance with some of the disclosed embodiments.

FIG. 9 is a UI diagram illustrating an example of a virtual board UIshowing real-time locations of parts in a manufacturing facility inaccordance with some of the disclosed embodiments.

FIG. 10 illustrates a diagram of a digitally presented manufacturingorder, according to one embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a three-dimensional diagram of a facility room in which aspatial UI and a virtual board UI showing real-time locations of partsin a manufacturing facility are being displayed in accordance with someof the embodiments disclosed herein.

FIG. 12 is a flow chart diagram illustrating a work flow for locatingparts in a manufacturing facility and presenting user interfaces showingthe real-time locations of the parts in accordance with some of thedisclosed embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments disclosed herein generally relate to systems, methods,devices, and computer storage media for presenting the locations ofparts being wirelessly tracked throughout a manufacturing or servicefacility. Interactive UIs provide the real-time locations of the partsin the manufacturing or service facility and track the parts travelingthrough different work and sub-work areas of the facility. Someembodiments illustrate the locations of the tracked parts in a two- orthree-dimensional “spatial” UI of the facility floor. Other embodimentsprovide a “virtual board” UI that displays the real-time locations ofthe parts organized according to the various work and/or sub-work areasof the facility.

The different UI views disclosed herein are interactive, in someembodiments, such that a user can interact with displayedrepresentations of the individual parts to retrieve part-specific ororder-specific information about the parts. Some embodiments linkvarious work, manufacturing, and service orders to displayedrepresentations of the parts in the different work or sub-work areas ofthe facility, providing an easy way for users to access specific detailsand job tasks related to the parts. For example, users may click on a UIelement representing a specific part in a certain work or sub-work areato retrieve part identifiers, wireless beacon identifiers (discussed inmore detail below), manufacturing or service orders, manufacturing orservicing tasks, or the like. Thus, the disclosed UIs provide workerswith an integrated solution for seeing the current locations of parts inmanufacturing or servicing facilities and relevant information for eachpart.

Parts may be tracked throughout the facility using the techniques,systems, methods, and computer-storage disclosed in the provisionalpatent application concurrently filed on Aug. 7, 2015, entitled“TRACKING PARTS IN MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE FACILITIES,” filed by theApplicant, and having the same inventor as this application.Additionally, some embodiments may use attached location tags todetermine locations of parts, as disclosed the provisional patentapplication concurrently filed on Aug. 7, 2015, entitled “MONITORINGPARTS IN A FACILITY,” filed by the Applicant, and having one jointinventor in common with this application. Both concurrently filedprovisional applications are incorporated herein by reference in theirentirety for all purposes and are referenced herein collectively as the“Concurrently Filed Applications.”

One embodiment identifies and tracks parts in a facility using wirelessbeacons coupled to the parts. The wireless beacons transmit locationsignals as the parts move throughout the facility. Such an embodimentuses receiver devices strategically positioned in the facility andconfigured to wirelessly capture the location signals from the wirelessbeacons. The receiver devices transmit the received location signalsover a network (e.g., the Internet or private network) to a server orclient computing device that determines the real-time location of theparts in the facility.

The locations of the parts may be determined by the monitoring server orclient computing device using the strengths of the location signalsrelayed by the receiver devices. Parts may be located in the variouswork areas and sub-work areas in the facility. One embodiment determinesthe work or sub-work area location of a particular part based on thereceiver device—or multiple receiver devices—in the facility thatcaptured the strongest signal(s) from a wireless beacon coupled to thepart. Parts may be tracked through the facility by analyzing locationsignals subsequently transmitted by the wireless beacons—eitherperiodically or upon detection of certain events (e.g., motion,acceleration, pressure, temperature, light, global positioning,rotation, rotational vector, or the like)—and relayed by the receiverdevices to the monitoring server or client computing device.

Additionally, the historical locations of parts may be stored andanalyzed to better understand the operational inefficiencies of amanufacturing or service facility, or to ascertain inefficiencies ofindividual workers. Some embodiments integrate the systems andtechniques described herein with their electronic staffing recordsystems to determine how efficiently specialized workers are performingjob tasks. The number of parts still needing to pass through variouswork areas may be used to forecast shipment completion dates, currentwork capacities, staffing productivity, and/or staffing needs. Theamount of time parts stays in a welding working area may be tracked andassociated with a welder's overall efficiency at welding a particularpart.

The embodiments discussed herein may be implemented in variousmanufacturing, service, wholesale, and retail facilities. In oneexample, a manufacturing facility may use the various embodiments hereinto track parts being assembled therein. In another example, a servicefacility may use embodiments disclosed herein to track parts beingfixed, inspected, or otherwise serviced. In other examples, retailfacilities may use the disclosed embodiments to track goods being storedor displayed. For the sake of clarity, instead of having to constantlymention all of the possible facilities throughout this disclosure,embodiments are discussed in a manufacturing facility to aid the readerwith the understanding that such embodiments may equally be used inother types of facilities as well. Thus, the embodiments disclosed in amanufacturing facility may be used in a servicing facility, retailfacility, wholesale facility, or other facility.

The manufacturing facilities discussed herein have separate work areas,and each work area may include one or more sub-work areas. As referredto herein, a “work area” is an area in a manufacturing facility in whicha particular work operation is performed. Examples of work areasinclude, without limitation, an intake area, a welding area, a machiningarea, an assembly area, a curing area, a painting area, a molding area,a programming area, a testing area, an inspection area, a shipping area,or any other area used to manufacture a completed part.

Work areas themselves may include one or more sub-work areas. Forexample, a welding area may include a holding sub-work area where partsneeding to be welded are held, a welding sub-work area where welding isperformed, an inspection sub-work area where welds are inspected, and anouttake sub-work area where welded parts are placed before moving toother areas. In another example, an assembly work area may includeintake and outtake sub-work areas and several assembly sub-work areaswhere parts are attached along a manufacturing line. For instance, afirst rotor may be moved to a first assembly sub-work area, the rotor islater fastened to a stator in a second assembly sub-work area, a secondrotor is moved to a third sub-work area, and so forth. Additionalexamples of work areas and sub-work areas are too numerous to list here,and need not be exhaustively provided to understand the variousembodiments disclosed. But it should at least be noted that embodimentsmay monitor the sub-work areas and the work areas to understand whenparts are moving in and out of both.

Some of the embodiments disclosed herein track parts in a facility bytheir real-time locations in the various work areas and/or sub-workareas of a manufacturing facility. Additionally or alternatively, thehistoric locations of parts in various work areas and sub-work areas ofa manufacturing facility may also be tracked. For example, oneembodiment may track every work area and sub-work area through which apart has passed, and this historical location data about the part may beanalyzed to determine specific bottlenecks in the manufacturing process,estimate delivery times of orders, forecast facility capacity, ordetermine other useful metrics related to the manufacturing or servicingfacility.

Work areas and sub-work areas may all be contained within one facility(in some embodiments) or may be contained within multiple structures (inother embodiments). Even when contained in a single facility, the workareas may be included on different floors, in different rooms, or invarious separated areas of the structures. For example, welding andassembly of parts may take place on a large shop floor. Whereas, partsmay be received at an intake area in a separate room of the facility, orin an entirely other building structure of the facility. In anotherexample that tracks parts across multiple structures, assembly andwelding of a part may occur in a facility in Fort Worth, Tex., but thepart may be programmed in another facility in Ipswich, Mass. Thetracking techniques used herein may be configured to monitor the part inboth facilities. Thus, embodiments disclosed herein may be used to trackparts through a single structure, at different structures, or throughseparate rooms and floors of structures.

Any part in a manufacturing, service, wholesale, or service facility maybe tracked using the various techniques and devices disclosed herein.Some specific embodiments focus on the tracking of parts in theoil-and-gas, power, mineral-extraction, and similar industries ofmanufacturing. Example parts that may be tracked in a manufacturingfacility using the embodiments disclosed herein include, withoutlimitation: fluid ends, swivels, joints, manifold trailers, valves,hoses, conduits, safety iron, safety hammers, dart valves, plug valves,clapper check valves, pressure relief valves, emergency unloadingvalves, gate valves, subsea dosage valves, hydraulic valves, valveseats, butterfly valves, steadseal valves, hyperseal valves,Polytetrafluoroethylene-lined valves, swingthrough valves,rubber-sealing and rubber-line valves, fire safe valves, swing and liftcheck valves, T-pattern globe valves, Y-pattern globe valves, three-wayglobe valves, compressor check valves, cold reheat check valves, coldheat check valves, testable check valves, reverse current valves,parallel slide valves, gate valves, safety valves, safety relief valves,isolation valves, relief valves, mounted-ball valves, ball valves,diaphragm valves, butterfly valves, gate and globe valves, check valves,lift check valves, swing check valves, steam isolation valves, feedwaterisolation valves, integrated safety valves, single-stage turbines,multi-stage turbines, hydraulic turbines, pump turbines, quad-runnerturbines, gear operators, pneumatic actuators, pressure control panels,lifting clamps, flow line safety restraints, chokes, drop ballinjectors, pumps, blowout preventers, gas separators, overshotconnectors, wellheads, frac pumps, manifold systems, fluid end systems,slurry pumps, water pumps, subsea pumps, premix tanks, frac trees,swellable packers, manifold skids, tubing heads, wellheads, rodrotators, stuffing boxes, casing heads, tubing heads, control valves,positive displacement pumps, hydrocyclones, dewatering pumps, vortexpumps, trailers, conveyors, screening machines, material handlingmachines, communition machines, feeders, crushers, modular plants,barges, and any other additional manufactured or serviced parts. A partas listed herein can refer to individual parts or components of anassembled product. For example, a part may be a larger assembly or partstherefore; for example, but not limitation, a pump, a machine, a plant,means the larger assembly or the individual parts comprising the largerassembly. Though such a list is lengthy, it is not exhaustive. Otherparts in manufacturing facilities may alternatively be tracked using theembodiments disclosed herein.

To aid the reader, a running example is discussed throughout thisdisclosure of wireless beacons being coupled to a “valve body,” which isone constituent part of a valve that, when combined with otherconstituent valve parts (e.g., a disc, a hand wheel, an actuator, ashaft, a cover, etc.) forms an assembled valve. Other parts—includingthose previously stated, equivalents thereof, or other manufactured orserviced parts—may be tracked in a manufacturing facility using thesystems and techniques described herein. For the sake of clarity,however, an exemplary valve body is referred to throughout thisdisclosure as a part to further illuminate some of the disclosedembodiments.

Embodiments disclosed herein may generally be described in the contextof computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, executedby one or more computing devices in software, firmware, hardware, or acombination thereof. The computer-executable instructions may beorganized into one or more computer-executable components or modules.Generally, program components and modules include, but are not limitedto, routines, programs, objects, components, and data structures thatperform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types.Aspects of the disclosure may be implemented with any number andorganization of such components or modules. For example, aspects of thedisclosure are not limited to the specific computer-executableinstructions or the specific components or modules illustrated in thefigures and described herein. Other examples of the disclosure mayinclude different computer-executable instructions or components havingmore or less functionality than illustrated and described herein.Moreover, in examples involving a general-purpose computer, aspects ofthe disclosure transform the general-purpose computer into aspecial-purpose computing device when configured to execute theinstructions described herein.

Having briefly described an overview of some of the disclosedembodiments and generally defined various terminology used throughoutthis disclosure, the accompanying figures and corresponding disclosurebelow describe additional aspects of some of the embodiments disclosedherein. The following figures are provided merely to illustrate aspectsof some of the disclosed embodiments and are not meant to limit allembodiments to any particular configuration of sequence of steps. Also,technically equivalent configurations, facilities, and work flows willbe readily apparent to those skilled in the art in light of thisdisclosure. Such equivalent designs are fully contemplated by thisdisclosure.

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a wireless beacon 100, accordingto one embodiment. The wireless beacon 100 includes a processor 102,memory 104, a receiver 106, a transmitter 108, a power supply 110, andone or more sensors 112 that collectively function to transmit wirelesslocation signals for use in identifying a particular part's location.The illustrated components of wireless beacons 100 may be encapsulatedin a casing made of plastic, rubber, metal, or other type of materialthat protect the electronic components of the wireless beacon 100 fromdamage inside the manufacturing facility. Although the various blocks ofFIG. 1 are shown with lines for the sake of clarity, in reality,delineating various components is not so clear, and metaphorically, thelines would more accurately be blurry. For example, processor 102 mayhave internal memory. The inventors hereof recognize that such is thenature of the art and reiterate that the diagram of FIG. 1 is merelyillustrative of an exemplary wireless beacon that can be used inconnection with one or more of the disclosed embodiments. Moreover,alternative embodiments may include additional components or may notinclude some of the illustrated components, and equivalents of thevarious components will be readily apparent to those of skill in theart.

Processor 102 may include one or more microprocessors, microcontrollers,arithmetic logic units (ALUs), integrated circuits (ICs),application-specific ICs (ASICs) or chips, systems on chip (SoC), orother processing units configured to instruct transmission of wirelesslocation signals according to the techniques and methods disclosedherein. In one embodiment, processor 102 comprises a Bluetooth-brandedchip or circuit (e.g., a Bluetooth low energy (LE) or other BluetoothSmart version chip) capable of selectively broadcasting low-poweredwireless signals based on data detected by various sensors 112.

The wireless beacon 100 transmits location signals to receiver devicesusing the transmitter 108. In one embodiment, the transmitter 108comprises a Bluetooth-branded transmitter capable of transmittingcontrolled-range wireless transmissions. Such a transmitter mayspecifically use a Bluetooth LE (e.g., Bluetooth version 4.x) or aBluetooth Smart transmitter capable of transmitting wireless signals atfurther piconet distances and at lower peak, average, and idle modepower consumption than legacy Bluetooth transmitters. Other embodimentsmay use legacy Bluetooth transmitters (e.g., Bluetooth versions 1.x,2.x, 3.x, etc.).

When using Bluetooth for wireless transmissions, transmitter 108 may usea Bluetooth antenna to transmit location signals, or other messages, ona radio channel that regularly changes frequency (i.e., hops) accordingto a predetermined code. For example, transmitter 108 may include aBluetooth transmitter that transmits in the unlicensed industrial,scientific, and medical (ISM) band at or about at 2.4 to 2.485 GHz,using a spread-spectrum frequency-hopping full-duplex signal at anominal rate at or about 1600 hops/sec. Frequency hopping may occuracross about 79 frequencies at or about at 1 MHz intervals, in someembodiments. Other embodiments may use various other adaptive frequencyhopping (AFH) techniques.

Receiver devices, which are disclosed in more detail in the ConcurrentlyFiled Application, may be configured to receive signals along the samefrequencies as those used by the transmitter 108. For example, areceiver device may tune to the same transmission frequencies andhopping schemes being used by the transmitter 108, enabling the receiverdevice to listen to the appropriate frequency at the appropriate time toreceive data packets of location signals.

In other embodiments, the transmitter 108 comprises a Zigbee-brandedtransmitter to wirelessly transmit location signals to receiver devices.In such embodiments, the transmitter 108 operates on the physical radiospecification of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers(IEEE) 802.15.4 standard and transmits in the unlicensed bands at orabout at 2.4 GHz, 900 MHz, and 868 MHz. In other embodiments, thetransmitter 108 wirelessly transmits location signals according to theIEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi standard. In such embodiments, the transmitter 108operates on or about on the 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz ISM radio frequency bands.The transmitter 108 may alternatively be configured to transmit locationsignals using various other wireless protocols, e.g., withoutlimitation, WirelessHD, WiGig, Z-Wave, and the like. Receiver devicesmay be tuned accordingly to listen for data packets along correspondingfrequency bands used by the aforesaid communications protocols.

Additionally or alternatively, transmitter 108 may take the form ofactive or semi-passive radio frequency identification (RFID)transmitters, in some embodiments. Using active or semi-active RFIDtransmitters, transmitter 108 may wirelessly broadcast at a variety offrequencies, e.g., without limitation, at low frequency bands of orabout 125/135 kHz, relatively high frequency bands (when compared to thelow frequency band) of or about 13.56 MHz, and relatively ultra-highfrequency bands (when compared to the low and high frequency bands) ofor about 850-950 MHz. Receiver devices may be tuned accordingly tolisten for data packets along corresponding frequency bands used by theaforesaid communications protocols.

The receiver 106 is capable of receiving data, either wirelessly throughany of the aforementioned wireless communication protocols or through awired connection. In one embodiment, the receiver 106 receives a partidentifier (ID) 116 for the part coupled to the wireless beacon 100,allowing the wireless beacon 100 to locally store the part ID 116 inmemory 104. Locally storing the part identifier (ID) 116 in memory 104allows the wireless beacon to include the part identifier in locationsignals that are wirelessly transmitted to receiver devices. Not allembodiments will communicate part identifiers 116 in location signals,however. Some embodiments will instead broadcast location signals thatinclude a standard data value or code word, an identifier of thewireless beacon (beacon ID 114) stored in memory 104, or a combinationthereof—either with or without the part (ID) identifier 116.

In one embodiment, wireless beacon 100 is programmed with the part ID116 at a programming work station in the facility. Parts may be pairedwith wireless beacons using programming devices that communicate thepart IDs 116 to the wireless beacons 100 for storage thereon. When thepart leaves the facility, the wireless beacon 100 may be removed fromthe part and returned to a storage container until the wireless beaconis paired again with another part by being programmed with that part'spart ID 116. In this sense, the wireless beacons 100 are reusable andcan be repeatedly be used to track different parts coming through thefacility.

Wireless beacon 100 includes a variety of computer-readable media, whichare represented in FIG. 1 as memory 104. Computer-readable media includecomputer-storage memory and communication media. By way of example, andnot limitation, computer-storage memory may comprise Random AccessMemory (RAM); Read Only Memory (ROM); Electronically ErasableProgrammable Read Only Memory (EEPROM); flash memory or other memorytechnologies; solid-state memory; hard drives; compact disks (CDs);digital versatile disks (DVDs) and other optical or holographic media;magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or othermagnetic storage devices; or any other memory that can be used to encodedesired information and be accessed by wireless beacon 100.

Computer-storage media may include volatile, nonvolatile, removable, andnon-removable computer-storage memory implemented in any method ortechnology for storage of information including, without limitation,computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules, datatypes, dynamic link libraries (DLLs), application programming interfaces(APIs), or other data. Computer-storage media are tangible, mutuallyexclusive to communication media, and exclude carrier waves andpropagated signals. For purposes of this disclosure, computer-storagemedia are not signals per se. In contrast, communication media typicallyembody computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules,or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or othertransport mechanism and include any information delivery media.

Computer-storage memory 104 represents computer-storage media on thewireless beacon 100. In operation, the processor 102 reads data and/orexecutes computer-executable instructions stored in memory 104. Memory104 may also store a beacon identifier (ID) 114 indicative of thewireless beacon 100 and a part ID 116 indicative of the part to whichthe wireless beacon 100 is attached, affixed, paired, or coupled. Thebeacon ID 114 is a unique alphanumeric value, e.g., a codeword, beaconnumber, a media access control address (MAC), or other type ofidentifier unique to the wireless beacon 100. The part ID 116 is also aunique alphanumeric value that may include a part number, PO number,customer identifier, shipping number, part description, MAC address, orother type of identification of the coupled part.

Memory 104 stores a signal component 118 that comprises executableinstructions dictating when to transmit location signals from thewireless beacons 100 using the transmitter 108. In one embodiment,signal component 118 selectively instructs the processor 102 to transmitlocation signals upon detected incidents or events, as sensed by one ormore hardware or software sensors 112 on the wireless beacon 100. Inanother embodiment, signal component 118 instructs the processor 102 toperiodically transmit location signals at specific time periods (e.g.,every 25 milliseconds, 30 seconds, 5 minutes, 1 hour, etc); at certaintimes of the day (8:00 am, noon, 2:00 pm, etc.); on particular days(e.g., Monday, Thursday, etc.); or a combination thereof. In stillanother embodiment, the wireless beacon 100 may be equipped with auser-interface (e.g., physical button, keypad, etc., joystick, etc.)that allows a user to prompt the transmission of location signals. Forinstance, a detected specific user interaction (e.g., pushing of abutton) by the signal component 118 prompts transmission of locationsignals. The signal component 118 may be configured to transmit locationsignals based on input from any of the illustrated sensors 112 or from acombination of signals from the sensors 112. Along these lines, someembodiments may only include one or some combination of the illustratedsensors 112.

Sensors may include an accelerometer 120, a magnetometer 122, a pressuresensor 124, a photometer 126, a thermometer 128, a GPS sensor 130, agyroscope 132, a rotational vector sensor 134, additional sensors, or acombination thereof. Some of the sensors 112 may be combined into asingle sensor chip. For example, the accelerometer 120 may be combinedwith the magnetometer 122, the pressure sensor 124 may be combined withthe thermometer 128, the gyroscope 132 may be combined with therotational vector 134, etc. Predicating location-signal transmissions onthe sensed inputs can drastically reduce overall power consumptionbecause the wireless beacons 100 only transmit signals—and thus wakeup—at particular detected events. In such embodiments, an operatingsystem of the wireless beacon is kept inactive (i.e., sleeps) until asensor detects a particular threshold event (e.g., movement,acceleration, temperature, light, pressure, rotation, GPS, etc.), atwhich time the operating system is woken up and location signals aretransmitted. This saves considerable battery power in the wirelessbeacons 100. Wireless beacons 100 can mostly stay in a disabled stateuntil being woken up by a sensor 112 sensing a particular threshold,event, or incident requiring transmission of a location signal.

Looking at the sensors 112 depicted, the accelerometer 120 captures theacceleration force of the wireless beacon 100 in the x, y, and/or zdirections. In one embodiment, signal component 118 is configured totransmit location signals upon the detection of any sensed acceleration.Transmitting in such a manner may consume significant power resources,however, because the wireless beacon 100 and its coupled part may bestored in a container that is frequently jostled, bumped into, orotherwise moved at times when the part is not being transferredthroughout the manufacturing facility. Therefore, some embodiments willwait until the accelerometer 120 measures a certain threshold ofacceleration or movement before transmitting the location signals. Forexample, movement of 1 ft/s² or 0.3 m/s² may need to be reached beforethe signal component 118 instructs location signals to be transmitted.

Additionally, the direction of acceleration or movement detected by theaccelerometer 120 may also be taken into account by the signal component118 when determining when to transmit location signals. Acceleration ormovement in one or more directions (e.g., x, y, or z direction, or acombination thereof) may be weighted by the signal component 118 inorder to give more or less deference to a particular direction, ordirections, as conditions used to base transmissions of locationsignals. For example, acceleration in the z direction may be weighteddifferently than acceleration in the x or y directions, because the zdirection may be more likely to indicate that a part is being lifted outof a bin in one work area or sub-work area and will likely betransferred to another. In another example, movement in the z directionmay be discounted when compared to movement in the x and y directions,as movement up and down may likely be inconsequential as an indicator ofwhether a part is moving to a different work area or sub-work area. Anyof the directions (x, y, or z) may be weighted account for differentparts, movements, or facilities.

The magnetometer 122 may take the form of a low-powered vector ortotal-field magnetic sensor capable of detecting magnetic fields eitherin aggregate or in two or three dimensions. Examples of magnetic sensorsthat may be used include, without limitation, a Hall effect sensor, agiant magnetoresistance (GMR) sensor, a magnetic tunneling junction(MTJ) sensor, an anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) sensor, and aLorentz force sensor. In operation, the signal component 118 may beconfigured to transmit location signals when the magnetometer 122 sensesa threshold magnetic field, either in the aggregate or in particulardirections, thereby indicating the wireless beacon 100 is within aparticular proximity (e.g., 0.5, 1, 3, etc. feet or meters) to aspecific magnetic structure (e.g., metallic beam) or electromagneticdevice (e.g., receiver device).

The threshold level of sensed magnetism necessary for the signalcomponent 118 to transmit location signals may be correlated to thedistance such structures or receiver devices are from the wirelessbeacon 100. For example, the signal component 118 may only transmitlocation signals when a field of more than 4 Gauss is sensed, because a4 Gauss field correlates to a particular distance of a specificstructure or device in the manufacturing facility. Alternatively, toavoid false positives when the part is moving, a time element may befactored when using readings from the magnetometer 122 such that athreshold level of magnetism must be detected for threshold period oftime (e.g., 5 seconds, 1 minute, 1 hour, etc.) to trigger thetransmission of location signals.

The pressure sensor 124 detects pressures, and the thermometer 128detects temperature. In particular, the pressure sensor 124 may take theform of a transducer, a capacitance-type sensor, micromachine silicon(MMS) sensor, microelectromechanical system (MEMS) sensor, a chemicalvapor deposition (CVD) sensor, or other type of sensor capable ofdetecting pressure. Pressure and temperature may differ in various workand sub-work areas. For instance, welding and curing work areas may berelatively hotter than assembly areas. So the signal component 118 maybe configured to transmit location signals based on sensed temperatureand/or pressure being or temperature/pressure changes.

A photometer 126 may be used to detect light intensity or other optics.Photometer 126 may include one or more photoresistors, photodiodes,photomultipliers, or other types photo-voltaic components capable ofmeasuring one or more light properties, including, for example butwithout limitation: light illuminance, irradiance, absorption,scattering, reflection, fluorescence, phosphorescence, luminescence. Inone embodiment, the signal component 118 transmits location signalsbased one or more detected light properties. In one specific embodiment,different light sources or signs having particular light reflectiveproperties may be positioned throughout the manufacturing facility in anattempt to delineate different work or sub-work areas. The photometer126 may be configured to continually or periodically detect lightproperties, and provide detected light properties to the signalcomponent 118 for evaluation.

A GPS sensor 130 may be used to detect the location and movement of thewireless beacon 100. The GPS sensor 130 may include its own integratedantenna along with various filters, radio frequency shields, andinternal processor. In operation, the GPS sensor 130 detects x and ycoordinates, and the signal component 118 can, in turn, use suchcoordinates to locate and track movement of the wireless beacon 100.

A gyroscope 132 may be used to detect movement through gyroscopicrotation (e.g., roll, pitch, and yaw) and the speed of movement. Thegyroscope 132 may work alone or in conjunction with the accelerometer120 to determine the acceleration or speed of movement of the wirelessbeacon 100. Acceleration and speed of movement may be considered by thesignal component 118 when determining when to transmit location signals.

The orientation and location of the wireless beacon 100 mayalternatively or additionally be sensed using a rotational vector sensor134. The rotational vector sensor 134 may be configured to detectrotational vector components along the x, y, and/or z axes, calculatingthe orientation of the wireless beacon 100 as a combination of an angle(θ) around an axis (x, y, z). For example, the rotational vectorcomponents may be calculated in the following manner:

Vector(x)=x*sin(θ/2)

Vector(y)=y*sin(θ/2)

Vector(z)=z*sin(θ/2)

Where the magnitude of the rotation vector is equal to sin(θ/2), and thedirection of the rotation vector is equal to the direction of the axisof rotation. These three vector components may be used by the rotationalvector sensor 134 to determine the orientation and location of thewireless beacon 100, and the signal component 118 may use the determinedorientation and location of the wireless beacon 100 to determine when totransmit location signals.

In one embodiment, the signal component 118, when executed by theprocessor 102, additionally or alternatively adds sensor data to thelocation signals that are wirelessly broadcast. For example, directionor acceleration information from the accelerometer 120, magnetic fielddata from the magnetometer 122, pressure readings from the pressuresensor 124, light data from the photometer 126, temperature readingsfrom the thermometer 128, GPS coordinates from the GPS sensor 130,gyroscopic rotation from the gyroscope 132, and rotational vectormagnitudes from the rotational vector sensor 134 may be included in thelocation signals from the wireless beacon 100. The wireless beacon 100may transmit various sensor data—either collected at the time thewireless beacon 100 is woken up, historically, or periodically—alongwith the beacon ID 114, part ID 116, or a combination thereof to thereceiver devices discussed below.

The power supply 110 may take the form of a battery, which is eitherrechargeable or not. Some embodiments may include power monitoringcircuitry or software that, when executed by the processor 102,determines the power level of the power supply. Indications of suchpower levels may be wirelessly communicated from the transmitter 108using any of the aforementioned wireless communication protocols andtechniques to either a receiver device, a client computing device, or aserver.

To preserve power supply 110, embodiments may selectively transmitlocation signals from the wireless beacon 100 only when certain eventsare detected by one or more sensors 112. Embodiments may include onlyone of the illustrate sensors 120-134 or a combination thereof. Theprocessor 102 may be programmed to process data sensed by the varioussensors 112 and consequently initiate the broadcasting or transmittingof location signals when particular conditions are sensed. Locationsignals may be transmitted either synchronously according to an internalclock (e.g., at a time frequency of or about 60 Hz) or asynchronously.

FIG. 2A is an exploded-view diagram of a valve 200 with a wirelessbeacon 100 coupled to one of the valve's constituent parts, according toone embodiment. Valve 200 comprises a valve body 202, an hand wheel 204,an actuator 206, a shaft 208, and a valve disc 210. The valve body 202,hand wheel 204, actuator 206, shaft 208, and valve disc 210 aremachined, welded, and assembled in a manufacturing facility into valve200. The wireless beacon 100 may be coupled to the valve body 202 in anynumber of ways. For example, the wireless beacon 100 may be tied to thevalve body 202; affixed with an adhesive; attached with bands (e.g.,plastic, metallic, rubber, etc.), ties, ropes, strings, clasps, hooks,Velcro, magnets, clips, fasteners; placed in a container, bag, pocket,bin, or other receptacle that travels with the valve body 202 throughoutthe manufacturing facility; or otherwise coupled to the valve body 202.

The illustrated valve 200 is only shown with one constituent part—thevalve body 202—having a coupled wireless beacon 100. As shown in FIG.2B, wireless beacons 100 may be coupled to all the constituent parts ofthe valve 200, i.e., the valve body 202, the hand wheel 204, theactuator 206, the shaft 208, the valve disc 210, or any particularconstituent parts needing to be tracked.

FIG. 3 is a client computing device 300 configured to present locationsof parts in a manufacturing facility, according to one embodiment. Theclient computing device 300 is associated with one or more users 302 andrepresents a system for presenting interactive UIs depicting orotherwise presenting real-time location information of the parts in themanufacturing facility. The client computing device 300 represents anydevice executing instructions (e.g., as application programs, operatingsystem functionality, or both) to implement the operations andfunctionality associated with the client computing device 300 disclosedherein. The client computing device 300 may include a personal computer,laptop, mobile phone, mobile tablet, smart television, projector,portable media player, or other type of computing device. Additionally,the client computing device 300 may represent a group of interconnectedor communicatively connected computing devices, e.g., a computerconnected to a projector, a smart phone wirelessly communicating with atelevision, or the like.

The client computing device 300 has at least one processor 304, memory306, and input/output ports 308. The processor 304 may include anyquantity of processing units programmed to execute computer-executableinstructions for presenting the interactive UIs disclosed herein. Insome embodiments, the processor 304 is programmed to executeinstructions such as those illustrated in the flowchart figure of thisdisclosure.

Memory 306 may include any of the aforementioned computer-storage mediaand, in one embodiment, stores executable instructions for an operatingsystem 310, a communications interface component 312, a user interfacecomponent 314, a part tracking component 316, a virtual board component318, and a spatial map component 320. The depicted computer-executableinstruction components 310-318 are executable by the processor 304 toperform various functions and may include different hardware or firmwarefor execution—e.g., graphics cards, network cards, etc.

The operating system 310 controls the executable environment of theclient computing device 300. Specific to the embodiments discussedherein, the operating system 310 may include one or more renderingprograms for displaying UIs on an attached presentation device 306,which may take the form, in some embodiments, of a computer display,television, projector, or other presentation component. Additionally oralternatively, the operating system 310 may control the look and displayof various UIs tracking the locations of parts in the manufacturingfacility.

The communications interface component 314 includes a network interfacecard and/or computer-executable instructions (e.g., a driver) foroperating a network interface card that provides access over a public orprivate network. Communication between the client computing device 300and other devices (e.g., receiver device, monitoring server, databasecluster) over a public or private network may occur using any protocolor mechanism over any wired or wireless connection. In some examples,the communications interface is operable with short-range communicationtechnologies, such as by using near-field communication (NFC) tags,BLUETOOTH brand communications tags, or the like. Examples of networktransfer protocols include, for example but without limitation, thehypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), file transfer protocol (FTP), simpleobject access protocol (SOAP), or the like. Requests and responses maybe passed as different markup language messages—e.g., extensible markuplanguage (XML), hypertext markup language (HTML), or the like—or asparameters for scripting languages. One skilled in the art willappreciate that numerous scripting languages may be used by differentdistributed applications, a list of which, while not exhaustive,includes JAVASCRIPT brand scripts, personal home page (PHP), or thelike. Examples are not limited to any particular communication protocol,message language, or scripting language, as one skilled in the art willappreciate that different languages and protocols may be used tointeract with distributed applications.

The user interface component 314 includes a graphics card and acorresponding graphics-card driver for displaying data to the user andreceiving data from the user. The user interface component 314 may alsoor alternatively include a display (e.g., a touch screen display ornatural user interface) and a corresponding driver operating thedisplay. The user interface component 314 may also include one or moreof the following to provide data to the user or receive data from theuser: speakers, a sound card, a camera, a microphone, a vibration motor,one or more accelerometers, a Bluetooth-compatible communication module,GPS circuit, and a photoreceptive light sensor.

Parts in a manufacturing facility may be tracked by the client computingdevice 300 (in some embodiments) or the monitoring server 400 shown inFIG. 4 (in alternative embodiments). When tracked by the clientcomputing device 300, memory 306 includes the part tracking component314, which, in operation, analyzes location signals received from thewireless beacons 100 to determine the work areas and sub-work areas ofthe manufacturing facility where corresponding parts are located. In oneembodiment, the part tracking component 314 determines the locations ofwireless beacons 100, and their thus coupled parts, by analyzing thestrength of the location signals received at different receiver devices,as described in the Concurrently Filed Application. Additionally oralternatively, in some embodiments, the part tracking component 316determines wireless beacon 100 locations using the triangulationtechniques described in the Concurrently Filed Application. Otherembodiments may locate the wireless beacons 100 and their coupled partsin the manufacturing facility using values captured by the sensors 112,e.g., GPS; acceleration; movement; x, y, or z coordinates; rotationalvectors; temperatures; pressures; etc.

One embodiment displays the locations of parts tracked in themanufacturing facility in a “virtual board” UI showing the parts locatedin the current work areas or sub-work areas of the facility. Forexample, one particular embodiment may display five different work areas(e.g., receiving, welding, machining, assembly, shipping) along with thecurrently detected locations of parts being detected in those fivedifferent areas. As the parts move through the manufacturing facility tonew work or sub-work areas, the coupled wireless beacons 100 of theparts broadcast new locations signals that are analyzed by the parttracking component 316 tracking part locations, and the virtual board UIis updated to show the moving or moved parts being in the new work orsub-work areas. For example, if a valve body 202 is moved from theholding area of a machining work area to the holding area of a weldingwork area, the virtual board component 318 accordingly depicts the newlocation of the valve body in the holding sub-work areas of the weldingwork area. An example of such a virtual work board UI is depicted inFIG. 9 of this disclosure and discussed in more detail below.

Another embodiment displays the locations of parts tracked in themanufacturing facility in a two- or three-dimensional “spatial” UIpresentation. In one embodiment, detected wireless beacons 100 aredisplayed in real time in the spatial UI presentation, as are thevarious work or sub-work areas. For example, one particular embodimentmay display a three-dimensional rendition of the manufacturing facilityshowing five different work areas (e.g., receiving, welding, machining,assembly, shipping) along with the currently detected locations of partsbeing detected in those five different areas. As the parts move throughthe manufacturing facility to new work or sub-work areas, the wirelessbeacons 100 of the parts broadcast new locations signals that areanalyzed by the part tracking component 316 tracking the part locations,and the spatial UI is updated to show the moved parts being in the newwork or sub-work areas. For example, if a valve body 202 is moved fromthe holding sub-work area of a welding work area to the holding area ofan assembly work area, the spatial map component 320 accordingly depictsthe new location of the valve body in the presented representation ofthe manufacturing facility. Examples of such spatial UIs are illustratedin FIGS. 7 and 8 of this disclosure.

I/O ports 308 allow client computing device 300 to be logically coupledto a presentation device 306. Presentation device 306 may include,without limitation, a computer monitor, glasses, a projector, a mobiletablet, virtual surface, a television, or the like. In one particularembodiment, the client computing device 300 projects the virtual boardand spatial map UIs onto screens or walls using one or more projectorsin an administrative office. Administrative and managerial workers canthen see the real-time locations of parts in the manufacturing facilityin the virtual board or spatial UIs. The UIs described herein may alsobe made accessible over a public network (e.g., the Internet), allowingworkers to view the virtual board or spatial UIs on a web page orotherwise see them remotely.

FIG. 3 depicts embodiments where the virtual board component 318 andspatial map component 320 are maintained and executed on a clientcomputing device 300. Alternative embodiments may process the virtualboard UI or spatial UI on a server that is accessible to the clientcomputing device 300 over a network. Such an embodiment is illustratedin FIG. 4, which shows a block diagram of a monitoring server 400configured to track parts in a manufacturing facility and provide theinteractive UIs disclosed herein to client computing devices 300. Stillother embodiments may process the virtual board and spatial UIs in ahybrid client-server model, with an applet on the client computingdevice 300 processing the UI display elements and a servlet on a serverprocessing locations of the parts in the manufacturing facility.

Looking closer at FIG. 4, the monitoring server 400 includes one or moreprocessors 402, computer-storage memory 404, input/output (I/O) ports406, and I/O peripherals 408. While the illustrated monitoring server400 appears to be a single physical device, the shown embodiment mayactually operate across a plurality of physical devices—e.g., multipleservers in a relational server configuration.

The processors 402 include one or more microprocessors,microcontrollers, graphic processing units (GPUs), ASICs, ICs, ALUs, orthe like. I/O ports 406 allow monitoring server 400 to be logicallycoupled to various I/O peripherals 408. I/O peripherals 408 may includea host of different input and output presentation devices, including,for example without limitation, a display device (e.g., computermonitor, projector, touch screen display, television, glasses, virtualsurface, etc.), speaker, printer, vibrating component, microphone,speaker, a microphone, a joystick, a satellite dish, a scanner, a remotecontrol, a graphical user interface (GUI), wearable (e.g., watches,glasses, headsets, or earphones), or the like. In one particularembodiment, the I/O peripherals 408 include connectivity to a videoprojector or display monitor configured to present real-time informationabout the location of parts in the manufacturing facility, as determinedby a part location component 414 analyzing location signals 412 receivedfrom the receiver devices.

In one embodiment, memory 404 stores computer-executable instructionscomprising an operating system 410, stored location signals 412originating from the wireless beacons 100 coupled to parts in themanufacturing facility, the part location component 414, a receiverdevice map component 416, a virtual board component 418, and a spatialmap component 420. The operating system 410 controls the softwarecomputational environment of the monitoring server 400. Variousserver-focused operating systems 410 may be used.

In one embodiment, as disclosed in the Concurrently Filed Application,location signals 412 are wirelessly communicated from the wirelessbeacons 100 to receiver devices in the manufacturing facility, and thereceiver devices transmit the location signals—either with our withoutidentifiers specific to the receiver devices themselves—over a networkto the monitoring server 400. Table 1 below provides exemplary dataattributes that may be communicated by the receiver device to themonitoring server 400:

TABLE 1 Signal Receiver Date Time Strength Beacon ID Part ID Device IDJuly 13, 2015 2:15:36 pm 2.2 dBmW MM:MM:MM:SS:SS:SS 1234567890 10003July 13, 2015 2:15:37 pm 0.5 dBmW MM:MM:MM:SS:SS:SS 1234567890 10001July 13, 2015 2:15:38 pm 3.0 dBmW MM:MM:MM:SS:SS:SS 1234567890 10002July 13, 2015 2:25:39 pm 7.3 dBmW ZZ:YY:AA:BB:CC:DD 4567890123 10001July 13, 2015 2:45:45 pm 1.1 dBmW AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF 5678901234 10001Knowing the signal strength of the location signals at the receiverdevices allows some embodiments to determine the closest receiver devicein the manufacturing facility to the wireless beacons 100 and theircoupled parts. For example, receiver devices capturing location signalsat lower strengths can be considered to be further away frombroadcasting wireless beacons 100—and their coupled parts—than receiverdevices capturing stronger location signals. In some embodiments, thelow-powered transmissions from the wireless beacons 100 dissipate overdistance, allowing the monitoring server 400 to correlate the distancethat the wireless beacons 100 are from the receiver devices to thestrengths of location signals.

The location signals 412 received and stored on the monitoring server400 may include data transmitted from either the wireless beacons 100and/or the receiver devices, e.g., part ID, beacon ID, time, date, MACaddress, codeword, signal strength, receiver device ID, etc. In oneembodiment, the part location component 414 determines the location ofparts in the manufacturing facility based on the received locationsignals 412 and a map of the different work areas and/or sub-work areasin the manufacturing facility generated by the receiver device mapcomponent 416. The receiver device map component 416 generates a map ofthe various work areas and sub-work areas, in one embodiment, based onthe strategic placement of the receiver devices in the manufacturingfacility. Receiver devices may be placed within a certain proximity tothe different work and sub-work areas, and each receiver device can beassigned a particular work or sub-work area. For example, one receiverdevice may be assigned to the holding sub-work area of a welding workarea, another receiver device may be assigned to a machining area'scompleted sub-work area, and another receiver device may be assigned toa shipping work area. Thus, users may define the various work andsub-work areas of the manufacturing facility through strategic placementof the receiver devices.

The map maintained by the receiver device map component 416 may includean x/y coordinate mapping of the manufacturing facility with variousportions assigned to different work and sub-work areas. Receiver devicesmay be assigned to the different portions of the x/y coordinate mappingand work/sub-work areas. In one embodiment, receiver devices are mappedto the x/y coordinates in a one-to-one manner, meaning that eachcoordinate may be assigned to just one receiver device. Alternativeembodiments map x/y coordinates of the map on a one-to-many basis suchthat coordinates are assigned to more than one receiver device. Eachreceiver device can then be assigned to a specific work area or sub-workarea. For instance, considering the example illustrated in Table 1above, the receiver device 300 with receiver device ID 10001 may beassigned to a welding work holding sub-work area, the receiver device300 with receiver device ID 10002 may be assigned to a completedassembly sub-work area, and the receiver device 300 with receiver deviceID 10003 may be assigned to a shipping work area.

In operation, the part location component 414 uses the location signals412 to identify in real-time the work area and/or sub-work area in themanufacturing facility where the parts are located. To do so, the partlocation component 414 may determine the closest receiver devices to thewireless beacons 100 and assign the parts associated with the wirelessbeacons 100 to work areas and/or sub-work associated with the nearestreceiver devices—as identified by the x/y coordinate mapping maintainedby the receiver device map component 416. The nearest receiver devicesmay be identified by analyzing the strength of the location signals 412for a particular wireless beacon captured by multiple receiver devices300 at or within a given time window (e.g., 30 ms, 1 s, 1 minute, etc.).

Multiple receiver devices may capture location signals being broadcastby a wireless beacon 100. For example, considering Table 1 again, threeof the receiver devices identified by receiver device IDs 10003, 10001,10002 captured location signals from the same wireless beacon 100 havingbeacon ID MM:MM:MM:SS:SS:SS at varied signal strengths 2.2 dBmW, 0.5dBmW, and 3.0 dBmW, respectively. In one embodiment, the part locationcomponent 414 determines that the 10002 receiver device is closest tothe MM:MM:MM:SS:SS:SS wireless beacon 100 due to the relatively highsignal strength of the location signal captured by the 10002 receiverdevice 300. Going a step further, the part location component 414 maythen associate the MM:MM:MM:SS:SS:SS wireless beacon 100 as beinglocated in a particular work area and/or sub-work area assigned to the10002 receiver device in the map of the different work areas and/orsub-work areas maintained by the receiver device map component 416.

In another embodiment, the part location component 414 uses the two,three, or more signal strengths to triangulate the location of theMM:MM:MM:SS:SS:SS wireless beacon 100 using, for example, the techniquesdiscussed below in reference to FIG. 7. Once the location istriangulated, the part location component 414 may identify the closestassigned receiver device 300 to the triangulated location of theMM:MM:MM:SS:SS:SS wireless beacon 100 and identify corresponding workareas and/or sub-work areas in the receiver device 300 map maintained bythe receiver device map component 416. Another embodiment generates theUIs on a client computing device 300 and receives updates of partlocations from the monitoring server 400.

Also, in some embodiments, the location signals of the wireless beacons100 include sensor data from the sensor(s) 112 of the wireless beacon100. The part location component 414 may use the sensor data (or theabsence of sensor data) in the location signals to determine thelocation in the facility of the wireless beacon 100—and its coupledpart. For example, a particular temperature reading captured by thethermometer 128 may be used by the part location component 414 of themonitoring server 400 to determine that the wireless beacon 100 is in awelding work area. Acceleration or direction information from theaccelerometer 120 in conjunction with the previous determined locationof a part (or wireless beacon 100) may be used by the part locationcomponent 414 to determine that the part has moved to an adjacent workarea (e.g., the part was previously in a welding work area and thenmoved in the direction of an assembly work area). Detected magneticfields captured by the magnetometer 122 may indicate to the partlocation component 414 that the wireless beacon 100 is near aparticularly large piece of machinery (e.g., a blast furnace) that hasbeen identified to be in a particular work area (e.g., smelting workarea). Thus, the data from the sensor(s) 112 in the location signals maybe used to determine the real-time locations of the parts.

The virtual board component 418 and the spatial map component 420generate the previously discussed virtual board and spatial UIs showingthe real-time locations of parts in the manufacturing facility andcontinually update these UIs to show the parts as they move to differentwork and sub-work areas. One embodiment generates these UIs on themonitoring server 400 and includes the server-generated virtual board orspatial UIs in web pages, mobile applications (e.g., smart phone ormobile table applications), or as part of a server-client application.

In one embodiment, indications of the individual parts themselves areshown, and various manufacturing or service documentation may be taggedto the parts' representative indications. For example, a part beingshown in a machining work area may be clicked on by a worker to drilldown to the part's manufacturing specific work area. The order may bekept up to date such that when specific manufacturing tasks arecompleted, the order itself, which is tagged to the representation ofthe part in the UIs disclosed herein, is also updated. Such anintegrated system allows workers to quickly identify the locations ofparts in the manufacturing facility and also quickly access the parts'relevant up-to-date work documentation.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a networking environment 500 forimplementing some of the disclosed embodiments. Networking environment500 includes numerous wireless beacons 100 that wirelessly communicate(e.g., using Bluetooth LE) location signals inside a manufacturingfacility 550 to a multitude of receiver devices 506. Network environment500 also includes a monitoring server 400, a database cluster 502, andone or more client computing devices 504 that, along with the receiverdevices 506, communicate over a network 540.

The network 540 is a public or private computer network. Examples ofsuch networks include, for example but without limitation, a local areanetwork (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), or the like. When network 540comprises a LAN networking environment, components may be connected tothe LAN through a network interface or adaptor. When network 540comprises a WAN networking environment, components may use a modem toestablish communications over the WAN. The network 540 is not limited,however, to connections coupling separate computer units. Instead, thenetwork 540 may also include subsystems that transfer data betweencomputing devices. For example, the network 540 may include apoint-to-point connection.

The client computing devices 300 may be any type of computing devicepreviously discussed, including, without limitation, a laptop, smartphone, mobile tablet, television, projector, or other computing devicecapable of presenting UIs indicating the real-time work and sub-workarea locations of parts being tracked in the manufacturing facility 550.In operation, the client computing devices 300 are used by workers whowant to view the real-time locations of parts in the manufacturingfacility. Such workers may be on the manufacturing floor, in separateoffices, or at home.

The database cluster 502 represents one or more servers configured tostore and manage databases of historical locations and/or locationsignals associated with the parts in the manufacturing facility 550. Thehistorical location signals or history of locations in the manufacturingfacility are useful data points that can be analyzed to determinefacility production efficiency, employee efficiency, manufacturing orservice capacity, and shipping times. The servers in the databasecluster 502 may include their own processors, computer-storage media,database software, and other necessary components for maintainingrecords of part traffic in the manufacturing facility.

In operation, the wireless beacons 100 wirelessly transmit (e.g., viaBluetooth LE or other 2.4 GHz range transmission) location signals tothe receiver devices 506, either periodically or upon interruptstriggered by one or more sensors 112. The receiver devices 506 transmitthe location signals—with or without a receiver device ID—to either themonitoring server 400 or the client computing devices 300. Real-timelocations of parts in the manufacturing facility are determined byeither the client computing devices 300 (in one embodiment) or themonitoring server 400 (in another embodiment) by identifying real-timework or sub-work area locations of the wireless beacons 100 transmittingthe location signals on the floor of the manufacturing facility 550. Inone embodiment, the strength of the location signals captured by thevarious receiver devices 506 and the position of the receiver devices506 are used to determine part locations. Alternatively, part locationsmay be triangulated using the triangulation techniques disclosed in theConcurrently Filed Application.

In embodiments where part locations are determined by the monitoringserver 400, the monitoring server 400 may transmit the real-timelocations of the parts to the client computing devices 300 for displayto workers—for example, as part of a web page or through a client-serverapplication. The client computing device 300 may then present the partlocations in the virtual board UIs or spatial UIs disclosed herein.Embodiments that locally compute part locations directly on the clientcomputing devices 300 may just present such location information in thevirtual board UIs or spatial UIs disclosed herein without serverinteraction. Additionally, the monitoring server 400 or client computingdevice 300—whichever is tasked with locating parts in the manufacturingfacility 550—may also transmit the locations of the parts or any dataelements of the location signals to the database cluster 502 forstorage.

FIG. 6 is a map diagram of a manufacturing facility 550 withstrategically positioned receiver devices 506 for tracking the real-timelocations of parts 202, in accordance with different embodiments. Themanufacturing facility 550 includes work areas 602, 604, 606, 608, 610,612, and 614 that are operationally partitioned into various sub-workareas 620, 622, 624, 626, 628, 630, 632, 634, 636, 638, 640, 642, 644,and 646. Also, walkways 660, 662, and 664 represent traffic areas in themanufacturing facility 550. The delineated lines of the work andsub-work areas may be physically partitioned from one another or justoperationally separated. For example, work area 604 may be the area inthe manufacturing facility 550 dedicated to machining or welding of part202, and sub-work area 620 may be a holding area, sub-work area 622 maybe where the machining of part 202 is performed, and sub-work area 624may be a finished holding area where parts 202 are stored aftermachining. The work and sub-work areas may take any shape in themanufacturing facility, as indicated by the various patterns shown.

FIG. 6 shows one embodiment in which receiver devices 506 arestrategically placed in a grid-like manner in the manufacturing facility550. The receiver devices 506 are specifically oriented at or about 90°angles to each other, in one embodiment. Alternative embodiments maystrategically position the receiver devices 506 in different patterns.

The wireless beacon 100 coupled to the part 202 transmits wirelesssignals as the part moves through the manufacturing facility throughwork from area 602 to 614. Receiver devices 506 capture the wirelesssignals and transmit such signals over a network to a monitoring server400 (in one embodiment) or client computing device 300 (in anotherembodiment), which, as discussed above, identifies the work area orsub-work area in which the part is currently located. The clientcomputing device 300 presents the real-time locations of the parts in avirtual board UI or a spatial UI.

FIG. 7 is a UI diagram illustrating an example of a three-dimensionalspatial UI 700 showing real-time locations of parts 202 in amanufacturing facility 550, according to one embodiment. Thethree-dimensional spatial UI 700 includes a three-dimensional UI area702 and a search UI area 704. The three-dimensional UI area 702 providesa three-dimensional graphical representation of the various work areas602-614 of the manufacturing facility 550. Sub-work areas may also beshown, but for the sake of clarity are not illustrated to aid thereader. The locations of parts 202 are shown in respective work areas602-614 and moved within the three-dimensional UI area 702 as the parts202 move in the manufacturing facility. In some embodiments, themonitoring server 400 or client computing devices 300 create thethree-dimensional UI area 702 and continually updates positions of theparts 202 based on x, y, and/or z coordinates—as determined throughstrengths of signals or triangulation techniques.

The three-dimensional spatial UI 700 is interactive in a number of ways.The search UI area 704 provides users with the ability to search forparticular parts or highlight specific work or sub-work areas. Users cansearch various search criteria, including, for example but withoutlimitation, part names (e.g., “valve bodies,” “flow line safetyrestraints fasteners,” “blowout preventers,” etc.); part IDs (e.g.,1234567890); work areas (e.g., “shipping,” “welding,” etc.); sub-workareas (e.g., “welding holding area,” “machining completed area,” etc.);beacon IDs (e.g., MM:MM:MM:SS:SS:SS); parts worked on by specificemployees (e.g., “John Doe”); parts originating from a specific supplieror received in the manufacturing facility at specific dates or times(e.g., “valve bodies from ABC Corporation” or “valve bodies received onAug. 7, 2015); parts destined for a particular customer or prospectiveshipping order (e.g., “blowout preventers for XYZ Corporation,” “blowoutpreventers for Manufacturing Order 87654321,” “blowout preventers forService Order 9876532,” etc.); parts needing certain tasks to becompleted (e.g., “valve bodies to be machined,” “valve bodies to beassembled,” etc.); or other search criteria related to the parts,wireless beacons 100, receiver devices, manufacturing or service orders,work areas, sub-work areas, or employees.

In response to submitted search queries, the monitoring server 400 orthe client computing devices 300 may identify the parts or work andsub-work areas being queried using various tags or data elementsassociated with the parts and work areas. For example, a part may betagged by the monitoring server 400 or client computing device 300 witha data element indicating the work or sub-work area where the part islocated. Parts may be identified in particularly searched work orsub-work areas by the tagged data elements. Other data elements that maybe tagged or associated with the parts include, for example but withoutlimitation, beacon IDs, part IDs, part manufacturers, manufacturing orservice order numbers, employee identifiers, tasks, dates, times,shipping orders, client identifiers, or the like. Any such data elementmay be used to search for, highlight, or otherwise identify the parts inthe three-dimensional spatial UI 700.

Additionally or alternatively, the three-dimensional spatial UI 700provides the ability for users to drill down on individual or groups ofparts shown in the three-dimensional UI area 702. Users may click any ofthe illustrated representations of the parts to obtain part-specificinformation. As illustrated, when the user clicks or hovers a mousecursor 706 on a specific part, a UI menu 750 is presented showingvarious data elements specific to the clicked or hovered-over part,including, for example, but without limitation, the part ID 752, thebeacon ID 754, the part name 756, and a link or pathway to amanufacturing order 758. An example of such a manufacturing order 758 isillustrated in FIG. 10 and described in detail below. Moreover, otherdocumentation may be linked or provided in the UI menu 750, including,for example, but without limitation, service orders, shipping orders,retail orders, wholesale orders, employee certifications, employee workrecords, or the like. For the sake of clarity, embodiments are discussedas displaying a linked manufacturing order 758; however, any of theaforementioned documents may alternatively or additionally be linked orprovided in the UI menu 750.

FIG. 8 is a UI diagram illustrating an example of a two-dimensionalspatial UI 800 showing real-time locations of parts 202 in amanufacturing facility 550, according to one embodiment. Thetwo-dimensional spatial UI 800 includes a two-dimensional UI area 802and a search UI area 804. The two-dimensional UI area 802 provides atwo-dimensional graphical representation of the various work areas602-614 of the manufacturing facility 550. Sub-work areas 620-646 arealso shown to the user in the two-dimensional UI area 802.

The locations of parts are shown in respective work areas 602-614 andmoved within the two-dimensional UI area 802 as the parts move throughthe manufacturing facility. In some embodiments, the monitoring server400 or client computing devices 300 create the two-dimensional UI area802 and continually update positions of the parts 202 based on x, y,and/or z coordinates of the location signals conveyed by receiverdevices 506 or determined by the part location components disclosedherein. Alternatively, the monitoring server 400 or client computingdevices 300 may update the positions of the parts in the two-dimensionalUI area 802 using triangulation techniques disclosed in the ConcurrentlyFiled Application.

Similar to the three-dimensional spatial UI 700, the two-dimensionalspatial UI 800 may be searched for the previously mentioned searchcriteria. In response to submitted search queries, the monitoring server400 or the client computing devices 300 may identify the parts 202 orwork and sub-work areas being queried using the previously discusseddata elements tagged or otherwise associated with the parts 202.

Additionally or alternatively, the two-dimensional spatial UI 800provides the ability for users to drill down on individual or groups ofparts 202 shown in the three-dimensional UI area 802. Users may clickany of the illustrated representations of the parts 202 to obtainpart-specific information. As illustrated, when the user clicks orhovers a mouse cursor 806 on a specific part 202, a UI menu 850 ispresented showing various data elements specific to the clicked orhovered-over part 202, including, for example, but without limitation,the part ID 852, the beacon ID 854, the part name 856, and a link orpathway to a manufacturing order 858. Again, other documentation may belinked or provided in the UI menu 850, including, for example, butwithout limitation, service orders, shipping orders, retail orders,wholesale orders, employee certifications, employee work records, or thelike.

FIG. 9 is a UI diagram illustrating an example of a virtual board UI 900showing real-time locations of parts in a manufacturing facility,according to one embodiment. The virtual board UI 900 includes a virtualboard UI area 950 and a search UI area 952. The virtual board UI area950 shows different work areas (Work Area_A 902, Work Area_B 904, WorkArea_C 906, and Work Area_D 908) and sub-work areas (Sub-Work Area_1910, Sub-Work Area_2 912, Sub-Work Area_3 914, Sub-Work Area_4 916,Sub-Work Area_5 918, Sub-Work Area_6 920, and Sub-Work Area_7 922) ofthe manufacturing facility 550. Parts being tracked are shown as partrepresentations 961-998 in the virtual board UI area 950, organizedaccording to the currently located work areas and sub-work areas.

Part representations 961-965 indicate parts that are currently locatedin Sub-Work Area_1 910 of Work Area_A 902. Part representations 966-969indicate parts that are currently located in Sub-Work Area_2 912 of WorkArea_A 902, part representations 970-976 indicate parts that arecurrently located in Sub-Work Area_3 914 of Work Area_B 904. Partrepresentations 977-980 indicate parts that are currently located inSub-Work Area_4 916 of Work Area_B 904. Part representation 981indicates a part currently located in Sub-Work Area_5 918 of Work Area_B904. Part representations 982-985 indicate parts that are currentlylocated in Sub-Work Area_6 920 of Work Area_C 906. Part representations986-991 indicate parts that are currently located in Sub-Work Area_7 922of Work Area_C 906. Part representations 992-98 indicate parts that arecurrently located in Work Area_D 908.

As the parts 202 move between different work and sub-work areas,corresponding part representations 961-999 disappear from prior areasand reappear in current areas. To illustrate this, part representation969 moved from Sub-Work Area_1 910 to Sub-Work Area_2 912, indicatingphysical movement of the corresponding part from one sub-work area toanother. Likewise, part representation 976 moved in the virtual board UIarea 950 from Sub-Work Area_2 912 to Sub-Work Area_3 914 when thecorresponding part moved between the two sub-work areas. Thus, thevirtual board UI 900 updates the virtual board UI area 950 in real timeas parts move between different work and sub-work areas of themanufacturing facility.

In one embodiment, each part representation 961-998 in the virtual boardUI area 950 indicates a corresponding part in the manufacturing facilitythat has a coupled wireless beacon 100. Part representations 961-998 maydepict parts with any combination of text, identifiers, logos, images,video, audio, or other indicators.

Moreover, in one embodiment, the part representations 961-998 areinteractive and may provide access to corresponding part documentationdisclosed herein. The search UI area 952 provides users with the abilityto search for particular parts or highlight specific work or sub-workareas. Users can search various search criteria, including, for example,but without limitation, part names, part IDs, work areas, sub-workareas, beacon IDs, employees, parts originating from a specific supplieror received in the manufacturing facility at specific dates or times,parts destined for a particular customer or prospective shipping order,parts needing certain tasks to be completed, or other search criteriarelated to the parts, wireless beacons 100, receiver devices,manufacturing or service orders, work areas, sub-work areas, oremployees.

In response to submitted search queries, the monitoring server 400 orthe client computing devices 300 may identify corresponding partrepresentations 961-998 or work and sub-work areas being queried usingvarious tags or data elements associated with the parts and work areas.Identified part representations 961-998 meeting the search criteria maybe highlighted in the virtual board UI 900, or alternatively, partrepresentations 961-998 not meeting the search criteria may be grayedout or otherwise displayed less prominently than the partrepresentations 961-998 of parts that meet the search criteria.

Additionally or alternatively, the virtual board UI 900 provides theability for users to drill down on individual or groups of parts shownin the virtual board UI 900. Users may click any of the partrepresentations 961-998 to obtain part-specific information. Forexample, user interaction with the part representations 961-998 maytrigger presentation of part IDs, beacon IDs, part names, and link orpathways to relevant orders (e.g., manufacturing order, service orders,shipping orders, retail orders, wholesale orders, employeecertifications, employee work records, or the like).

FIG. 10 illustrates a diagram of a digitally presented manufacturingorder 1000, according to one embodiment. The manufacturing order 1000represents one type of order that may be associated with parts in amanufacturing facility and presented in the UIs disclosed herein—e.g, byclicking various part representations in the spatial or virtual boardUIs illustrated in FIGS. 7-9. The manufacturing order 1000 of FIG. 10includes various data specific to the part and is presentable in digitalform by client computing devices 300. Embodiments may include additionalor alternative data relating to the part, coupled wireless beacon 100,manufacturing facility, workers, order, work tasks, or other relevantinformation to manufacturing or servicing.

As shown, the manufacturing order 1000 includes a bar code ID 1002 thatuniquely identifies the part and may be read by a bar-code reader. Inone embodiment, the part ID is encoded as the bar code 1002. Alternativeembodiments may encode the part name, part manufacturer, order number,customer number, date and time stamps, part serial number, or acombination thereof.

A manufacturing order (MO) number 1004 indicates a particularmanufacturing order, and a customer order (CO) number 1006 indicatespart order's prospective customer. The part's beacon ID is identified bybeacon ID 1008. A product number 1010 and product description 1012 arelisted to indicate either the part individually or the assembled part towhich the part is a constituent—e.g., a valve hand wheel to an assembledvalve. Production and quality control information 1016 may be listed,including, for example, but without limitation, time stamps of qualitycontrol checks, responsible personnel, test values for the part, or thelike. Similarly, testing and certification data 1018 may be displayed,e.g., certificate of compliance (C of C), certified mill test reports(CMTRs), heat values, and the like.

Various required manufacturing or service inspection and performancemetrics 1020 may be listed. Examples of such metrics include, withoutlimitation, magnetic particle inspection results, liquid penetrantinspection results, welding specifics, hardfacing results, minimum wallthicknesses or measurements, weld end drawing documents, or any otherparticular manufacturing or servicing inspection and performancemetrics.

Additionally or alternatively, manufacturing or servicing procedures1022, work tasks 1024, and additional notes 1026 may also be provided.The procedures 1022 represent the various areas, operational stages, andapplicable data or drawing sheets for manufacturing or servicing thepart. The data or drawing sheets may be linked to the manufacturingorder 1000 in some embodiments, or provided separately in otherembodiments. Work tasks 1024 refer to a sequence of jobs that need to beperformed by the workers. Details about the work tasks 1024 may also becaptured and stored on the manufacturing order 1000. Such details mayinclude, for example, but without limitation, run times and dates ofspecific tests or tasks, task-performing or task-supervising workerinitials, name of a particular inspector (shown as an American Societyof Mechanical Engineers Nuclear Inspector or “A.N.I.”), or otherrelevant information to ensure work tasks 1024 are completed efficientlyand safely. Notes 1026 may be entered on interactive computing devices(e.g., mobile phone, mobile tablet, testing device, laptop, etc.) andstored with the manufacturing order 1000, thereby making the notes 1026accessible to viewers of the various spatial and virtual board UIsdisclosed herein.

FIG. 11 is a three-dimensional diagram of a facility room 1100 in whicha two-dimensional spatial UI 800 and a virtual board UI 900 showingreal-time locations of parts in a manufacturing facility are beingdisplayed in accordance with some of the embodiments disclosed herein.The two-dimensional spatial UI 800 and the virtual board UI 900 areprojected on walls of the facility room 1100 by projectors 1104 and1106, respectively. Projectors 1104 and 1106 may act as presentationdevices 306 of one or more client computing devices 300, or may operateas the client computing devices 300 themselves. For instance, in thelatter case, the projectors 1104 and 1106 may include a processor 304executing the part tracking component 316, the virtual board component318, and the spatial map component 320 described above in reference toFIG. 3. While the two-dimensional spatial UI 800 is shown, embodimentsmay alternatively display the three-dimensional UI 700.

FIG. 12 illustrates a flow chart diagram illustrating a work flow 1200for locating parts in a manufacturing facility and presenting userinterfaces showing the real-time locations of the parts, in accordancewith one embodiment. A monitoring server or client computing devicegenerates a map of the work areas and/or sub-work areas in amanufacturing facility, as indicated at block 1202. The work areas orsub-work areas may be specified by a user. Once the work areas andsub-work areas are specified, receiver devices in the facility areassociated with the work areas and sub-work areas based on the receiverdevices locations in the facility, as indicated at block 1204. Oneembodiment associates receiver device IDs of the receiver devices withthe work and sub-work areas. For example, receiver devices in thewelding work area may be associated accordingly.

The monitoring server or client computing device receives locationsignals of wireless beacons coupled to parts in the manufacturingfacility over a network, as indicated at block 1206. The locationsignals may be received from the receiver devices. Additionally, themonitoring server or client computing device also receives, either alongwith the location signals or separately, receiver device identifiersthat are unique to the receiver devices sending the location signals, asindicated at block 1208. One embodiment uses the location signals, thegenerated map of work and/or sub-work areas, and the receiver deviceidentifiers to locate wireless beacons in the manufacturing facilitybeing in various work or sub-work areas, as indicated at block 1010. Thelocations of the wireless beacons are used as the locations of thebeacons' coupled parts. For example, the location signals of valvebody's coupled wireless beacon and the receiver device identifierstransmitting the location signals may indicate a valve body is in ashipping work area. Locations of the parts are stored either on themonitoring server or the client computing device, as indicated at 1212.If stored on the monitoring server, the locations of the parts may betransmitted to the client computing device for display. Whether computedlocally or received from the monitoring server, the locations of theparts are presented in the interactive UIs disclosed herein—e.g., thespatial UI, the virtual board UI, or a combination thereof.

Tracking the real-time locations of parts provides numerous benefitsover conventional manufacturing part-tracking systems. Using thewireless beacons described herein as trackers of parts eliminates theneed to constantly hunt down paperwork to determine where parts arelocated. This saves worker time and increases worker production.Tracking parts electronically eliminates many costly and unsafe humanerrors associated with inaccurately filling out paperwork or otherwisenoting when and where parts have been moved.

The virtual board and spatial UIs allow workers to quickly see andunderstand where parts are located without having to waste critical timehunting down paper or walking through the facility itself. Both UIs alsoallow workers to easily drill down on individual parts and obtainpart-specific data about where a part has been, who is handling it, andwhere it needs to go through a simple click of a mouse. The per-partsearchability of the UIs greatly enhance the user experience, allowingworkers to identify any part being tracked from a single computingdevice.

The various embodiments also greatly enhance safety in manufacturingfacilities with large machinery, because the electronic part-trackingsystem components disclosed herein largely reduce the amount of timeworkers need to spend hunting for parts in work areas in which they arenot working and running paperwork to and from offices for properstorage. Thus, the various embodiments help keep workers put in theirrespective work areas, thereby reducing worker traffic in themanufacturing facility and diminishing work accidents caused by heavymachinery that has to move throughout the facility. For example, aworker who spends more time in a welding area is at less risk at gettingstruck by a forklift carrying parts between other work areas of afacility. Moreover, along the lines of safety, some parts inmanufacturing facilities may be hazardous (e.g., in a nuclear-partfacility) and only allowed to be handled or exposed to certainaccredited workers. Reducing the amount of workers straying out of theirrespective work areas reduces the number of people accidentally cominginto contact with parts they are not trained to handle.

Additionally, the embodiments disclosed herein allow manufacturingfacilities to tighten up their safety programs. Tracking parts through agiven facility allows safety managers to get a better understanding ofwhere work bottlenecks occur. Once these are understood, work areas canbe easily reorganized for more efficiency and to enhance safety.

The use of wireless beacons that only transmit location signals uponsensed events allows some embodiments to greatly reduce the amount ofbattery power needed by the wireless beacons disclosed herein to trackparts in a facility. Also, the transmission of sensor data as part ofthe location signals, along with various part or beacon identifiers,provides a highly accurate way to locate parts in a manner that does notrequire human interaction.

Having described aspects of the disclosure in detail, it will beapparent that modifications and variations are possible withoutdeparting from the scope of aspects of the disclosure as defined in theappended claims. As various changes could be made in the aboveconstructions, products, and methods without departing from the scope ofaspects of the disclosure, it is intended that all matter contained inthe above description and shown in the accompanying drawings shall beinterpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

When introducing elements of aspects of the disclosure or the examplesthereof, the articles “a,” “an,” “the,” and “said” are intended to meanthat there are one or more of the elements. The terms “comprising,”“including,” and “having” are intended to be inclusive and mean thatthere may be additional elements other than the listed elements. Theterm “exemplary” is intended to mean “an example of.” The phrase “one ormore of the following: A, B, and C” means “at least one of A and/or atleast one of B and/or at least one of C.”

The subject matter disclosed herein is described with specificity tomeet statutory requirements. The description itself is not intended tolimit the scope of this patent. Rather, the inventors have contemplatedthat the claimed subject matter might also be embodied in other ways, toinclude different steps or combinations of steps similar to the onesdescribed in this document, in conjunction with other present or futuretechnologies. Although the terms “step” and/or “block” may be usedherein to connote different elements of methods employed, the termsshould not be interpreted as implying any particular order among orbetween various steps herein disclosed unless and except when the orderof individual steps is explicitly described. The order of execution orperformance of the operations in examples of the disclosure illustratedand described herein is not essential, unless otherwise specified. Theoperations may be performed in any order, unless otherwise specified,and examples of the disclosure may include additional or feweroperations than those disclosed herein. It is therefore contemplatedthat executing or performing a particular operation before,contemporaneously with, or after another operation is within the scopeof aspects of the disclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for presenting a user interfaceindicating the real-time locations of parts in a manufacturing facility,wherein the parts are coupled to wireless beacons configured towirelessly transmit a location signal, the method comprising: receivingsignal strengths of location signals captured by multiple receiverdevices, the signal strengths corresponding to distances the wirelessbeacon is from the multiple receiver devices; determining locations ofthe parts in the manufacturing facility based on the signal strengths;and presenting a user interface having: a first user interface areashowing a first set of the parts being located in a first work area, anda second user interface area showing a second set of the parts beinglocated in a second work area.
 2. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising moving at least one part from the first work area to thesecond work area as a second set of signal strengths associated with asecond location signal associated with the at least one part indicatesmovement from the first work area to the second work area.
 3. The methodof claim 1, wherein the user interface comprises a virtual board userinterface showing the real-time locations of the parts in a plurality ofwork areas.
 4. The method of claim 2, wherein the user interfacecomprises a virtual board user interface showing the real-time locationsof the parts in a plurality of sub-work areas.
 5. The method of claim 1,wherein the user interface comprises a spatial map user interfaceshowing the real-time locations of the parts in a plurality of workareas.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a userselection of at least one part; retrieving a manufacturing or serviceorder associated with the at least one part; and presenting themanufacturing or service order.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein thefirst set of parts and the second set of parts comprise at least one ofa fluid end, a swivel, a joint, a manifold trailer, safety iron, asafety hammer, a valve, a hose, a conduit, a dart valve, a plug valve, aclapper check valve, a pressure relief valve, an emergency unloadingvalve, a gate valve, a subsea dosage valve, a hydraulic valve, a valveseat, a butterfly valve, a steadseal valve, a hyperseal valve, aPolytetrafluoroethylene-lined valve, a swingthrough valve, arubber-sealing valve, a rubber-line valve, a fire safe valve, a swingand lift check valve, a T-pattern globe valve, a Y-pattern globe valve,a three-way globe valve, a compressor check valve, a cold reheat checkvalve, a cold heat check valve, a testable check valve, a reversecurrent valve, a parallel slide valve, a gate valve, a safety valve, asafety relief valve, an isolation valve, a relief valve, a mounted-ballvalve, a ball valve, a diaphragm valve, a butterfly valve, a gate andglobe valve, a check valve, a lift check valve, a swing check valve, asteam isolation valve, a feedwater isolation valve, an integrated safetyvalve, a single-stage turbine, a multi-stage turbine, a hydraulicturbine, a pump turbine, a quad-runner turbine, a gear operator, apneumatic actuator, a pressure control panel, a lifting clamp, a flowline safety restraint, a choke, a drop ball injector, a pump, a blowoutpreventer, a gas separator, an overshot connector, a wellhead, a fracpump, a manifold system, a fluid end system, a slurry pump, a waterpump, a subsea pump, a premix tank, a frac tree, a swellable packer, amanifold skid, a tubing head, a wellhead, a rod rotator, a stuffing box,a casing head, a tubing head, a positive displacement pump, ahydrocyclone, a dewatering pump, a vortex pump, a trailer, a conveyor, ascreening machine, a material handling machine, a communition machine, afeeder, a crusher, a modular plant, a barge, or a control valve.
 8. Oneor more computer storage memories embodied with computer-executablecomponents, for causing a computing device to present a user interfaceindicative of the real-time locations of parts in a facility, the mediacomprising: a communications interface component configured to receivelocation signals associated with wireless beacons coupled to the partsin the facility; a part location component configured to determine thereal-time locations of the parts in the facility based on the locationsignals; and a virtual board component configured to present a virtualboard user interface showing the real-time locations of the parts inrelation to one or more work areas of the facility.
 9. The one or morememories of claim 8, wherein the virtual board user interface is furtherconfigured to show the real-time locations of the parts in relation toone or more work areas and one or more sub-work areas of the facility.10. The one or more memories of claim 8, wherein the one or more workareas comprise at least one member comprising a welding work area, amachining work area, an assembly work area, a shipping work area, or areceiving work area.
 11. The one or more memories of claim 8, furthercomprising a spatial map component configured to present a spatial mapuser interface showing the real-time locations of the parts in relationto the one or more work areas of the facility.
 12. The one or morememories of claim 11, wherein the spatial map user interface shows athree-dimensional representation of the parts in relation to the one ormore work areas of the facility.
 13. An apparatus for presenting a userinterface that illustrates real-time locations of parts in a facility,the apparatus comprising: a presentation device with a touch-screendisplay; memory configured to store location signals of wireless beaconscoupled to parts in the facility and a virtual board component; and oneor more processors programmed to: identify work areas in the facility;determine the real-time locations, related to the work areas, of theparts based on the location signals of the wireless beacons, and executethe virtual board component to generate a virtual board user interfacefor presenting the real-time locations of the parts on the presentation.14. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising a receiver forreceiving the location signals from one or more receiver devices over apublic or private network.
 15. The apparatus of claim 13, furthercomprising a receiver for receiving the location signals from amonitoring server over a public or private network.
 16. The apparatus ofclaim 13, wherein the virtual board user interface comprises a virtualboard user interface area displaying a plurality of sub-work areas inthe facility and showing at least some of the parts being located in theplurality of sub-work areas.
 17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein: thework areas are displayed indicating at least one member of a groupcomprising a welding work area, a machining work area, an assembly workarea, a shipping work area, and a receiving work area; and the sub-workareas are displayed indicating at least one member of a group comprisinga holding sub-work area, an inspection sub-work area, and a completionsub-work area.
 18. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the presentationdevice comprises a projector, computer monitor, or a television.
 19. Theapparatus of claim 13, wherein the presentation device with the touchscreen display is part of a mobile tablet, a smart phone, or a digitalkiosk.
 20. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the one or more processorsare programmed to update the real-time locations of the parts in thevirtual board user interface based on the location signals.